The protein expression of Nm23-H1 was correlated with lymph node metastases (χ<sup>2</sup>=11.847; P=0.001) and pathological patterns (χ<sup>2</sup>=6.911; P=0.032).
The upregulation of prohibitin or the downregulation of 14-3-3sigma and nm23-H1 proteins was significantly associated with the proliferation, invasion depth, and lymph node metastasis of ESCC.
Our data demonstrated that the expression of nm23-H1 was negatively correlated with tumor stage and grade and lymph node metastasis, whereas the expression of AKT/pAKT was positively correlated with these clinic factors.
The intensity of nm23 staining in the tumor cells was not significantly correlated with depth of tumor infiltration (T-stage), lymph node metastasis (N-stage), distant metastasis (M-stage), UICC-stage, or prognosis.
To further explore the tumor metastasis suppressor function of nm-23 in HNSCC, we studied high-stage laryngeal carcinomas, tumors with and without cervical lymph node metastasis for nm-23 protein expression and loss of heterozygosity of the gene locus.
However, the expression of nm23 mRNA was correlated negatively to the lymph node metastasis of gastric and colorectal adenocarcinoma (r = -0.49, P<0.01; r = -4.93, P<0.01).
Although no mutation of the E-cadherin and nm23 genes was detected, the results obtained in the present study showed that reduction of E-cadherin and nm23 mRNA expression remarkably correlated with low histological differentiation, increasing stage as well as lymph node metastases (P<0.05).
Despite their different mechanisms of action, heparanase, CD44v6 and nm23 may play important roles in the invasive infiltration and lymph node metastasis in gastric carcinomas.
In patients at the early T stage, decreased nm23 expression was associated with increased incidence of lymph node metastasis (P=0.004) and indicated poor survival (P=0.014).
Survival of nm23-H1 positive group was statistically superior to nm23-H1 negative group (P < 0.0001) By multivariate survival analysis, tumor stage, the number of lymph node metastasis and expression of nm23-H1 were the independent prognostic factors for ESCC patients.
The nm23-H1 (+)/E-cadherin (+) coexpression profile was observed in 31% and was significantly related to the absence of lymph node metastases in 31% and stages Astler-Coller B1 and B2 in 29% of the carcinomas examined.
Lymph node metastasis was found at a significantly higher incidence in the nm23(+/-/-) cases (18/27, 66.7%) than in the nm23(+) cases (4/17, 23.5%) (p>0.001).
The NM23-H1 positive group showed lower frequency of lymph node metastasis, and a better grading than the NM23-H1 negative group supporting the role of NM23-H1 as metastasis suppressor factor which may be useful for predicting tumor metastasis in OSCC.
Expression of nm23-H1 protein indicated favorable prognosis, suggesting that the absence of nm23-H1 protein expression was significantly associated with lymph-node metastasis, recurrence and distant metastasis in NPC.
This observation suggested that focally positive/negative nm23 expression can be a predictor of lymph node metastasis of invasive ductal breast carcinoma.
NM23.H2 was always more highly expressed than NM23.H1, and reduced expression of NM23.H1 but not NM23.H2 was concordant with the presence of lymph node metastasis or local invasiveness of the primary tumor.
A significant relationship between nm23-H1 mRNA expression and lymph node metastasis was observed in high-grade tumors, which are intrinsically more invasive than are low-grade tumors.
The time from biopsy of the primary MM to the appearance of the first lymph node metastasis also showed a positive correlation with the nm23 mRNA level in this metastasis.